One Small Favor
by la z boy
Summary: Daniel Wood, son of Oliver Wood, loves Quidditch and Ron, but he's not too fond of Harry and Hermione...and whoever he's not fond of always falls victim to pranks.


**A/N: This was a challenge from lilyplusjamesistotallove. I had fun writing it, and I hope you have fun reading it.**

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><p><em><strong>ONE SMALL FAVOR<strong>_

There was something unexpected waiting for Harry, Ron and Hermione when they appeared in front of The Burrow after having just half-driven and half-Apparated from Platform Nine And Three Quarters. Well…unexpected, at least, in Harry and Hermione's case. They had just seen three of their children, James, Albus and Rose, off on the Hogwarts Express and Harry's wife Ginny had taken little Lily and Hugo out for a day of fun in order to ease their jealousy of not being able to attend Hogwarts with their siblings just yet.

Ron, however, _was_ expecting to see Oliver Wood and his seven year-old son Daniel waiting patiently on the front steps of The Burrow. When he spotted the two Woods, Ron waved his hand in greeting as the trio approached them.

"Hey, Oliver," Ron greeted with a friendly handshake. He changed his tone to one of coolness as he bent down to Daniel. "Hey there, Daniel!" For Daniel, Ron chose a high-five as a form of hello.

Daniel beamed at Ron. "What's up, Ron?" he said as he enthusiastically returned the high-five.

Oliver regarded Harry and Hermione with a friendly smile and gave them both a courteous nod. "Harry, Hermione, good to see you two."

"You as well," replied Harry as he exchanged a handshake of his own with Oliver. "So, uh, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I forgot to mention," said Ron as he straightened himself back up. "Right before Hermione and I left to drop the kids off, Oliver Flooed over and asked if I could babysit little Daniel here. I owe Oliver a favor, so I told him all three of us would do it here at The Burrow."

Daniel was the son of Oliver Wood and Katie Bell, two expert Quidditch players who had pursued a romantic relationship after their time at Hogwarts, and eventually got married. Both Oliver and Katie now had professional jobs in the sport of Quidditch, yet they still found enough time to be with their son.

Harry shook his head slightly. "So that's why we're here instead of at our own homes?"

Hermione cleared her throat. "You forgot to mention _that_ little tidbit, _dear_," she said with extra emphasis on a few words.

"Yeah," nodded Harry, "a bit of a short notice, wouldn't you say, mate?"

Ron rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry."

"By the way," Oliver piped up as he maneuvered his son in front of him. "Harry, Hermione, I don't believe either of you have ever met my son."

Hermione stepped closer. "No, we haven't…which is odd." Both she and Harry bent down at the same time so that they were face-to-face with Daniel Wood. "Hello, Daniel! I'm Hermione, and it's very nice to meet you!"

"And I'm Harry." Harry held out his hand, which Daniel took politely. As he did, Harry took notice of how alike Daniel looked to his father. He had that same collection of light brown hair and that same firm yet friendly face that Oliver always had.

"My Dad's told me a lot about you!" Daniel said excitedly to Harry. "He says you were an excellent Seeker when you were at Hogwarts, and that you were the best Quidditch player he'd ever seen…including himself."

The last comment caught Harry a bit by surprise. "Well…I dunno if I'd call myself _that _good." Harry stole a quick glance up at Oliver, who gave Harry a shrug of his shoulders as well as a restrained grin as if to say, 'Well, you were.' Harry looked back at Daniel. "So…are you into Quidditch much?"

"Are you kidding?" Oliver asked with a trace of a chuckle in his voice. "It seems Daniel has inherited his parents' passion. He's almost as obsessed with the sport as I was in school."

Daniel nodded eagerly. "Yeah, I love it! Ron comes over to our house a lot and practices with me. He's very good, too!"

Hermione straightened up and shared a knowing look with her husband. "Ah, now I remember. I take it that's some of your weekly 'exercise'?"

"Yeah. A bit of it," said Ron.

"Anyway, Harry, I told him you own a Firebolt, and ever since I did, he's been wanting to see it." Oliver's claim was confirmed by Daniel nodding his head enthusiastically again.

"Well," Harry smiled at Daniel, "as it so happens, my Firebolt is actually here in this house." Harry gestured up at The Burrow. "I keep it here because my kids caused quite a bit of trouble with it once and…well, that's not important." Brief images of an extremely messy house flashed though Harry's mind. "Maybe I can teach you how to fly on it today."

Daniel's eyes lit up. "Wow! That'd be wicked! Thanks!"

"No problem."

"By the way, Ron, that reminds me…why aren't we at your house or something?" asked Oliver.

"Because we're doing a bit of redecorating at the moment, and there's more space here, so that makes everything easier. Also, my parents are off visiting relatives, so we'll have the place to ourselves for the afternoon. Now, how long will you be gone for again?"

"Until about five or so," responded Oliver. "Katie and I have to spend the day at an intensive Captain-training session. It's supposed to help us as Team Captains develop a better relationship with our teammates."

"I know George would approve of that," said Harry slyly. They all laughed at the comment.

"Anyway," continued Oliver, "Daniel brought a few things with him to help keep him occupied." It was only then that Harry noticed the backpack that was slung across Daniel's right shoulder. Oliver knelt down beside his son. "Now, you behave for Harry, Ron and Hermione. I'll be back to pick you up later this afternoon, and then we can meet up with Mummy and eat out tonight. Sound good?"

Daniel nodded, and after he did, father and son exchanged a quick but affectionate hug.

"See you soon, buddy," Oliver told his son before he Disapparated from the spot. This left Daniel in a lingering silence with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Ron was the one who broke it.

"So, Daniel, want to go inside and do some of our usual stuff before lunch, like a little game of Exploding Snap?"

"Sure!"

"Here, let me take your bag."

Ron lifted the item in question from the seven year-old and walked into his former home. Daniel stared after Ron for a few moments, but suddenly whirled around to face Harry and Hermione, who were still standing outside.

"Let's get one thing straight," he spat in a surprisingly vicious tone. "I don't like you. There's _no _way you're better than my Dad!"

Harry opened his mouth in shock and was about to say something, when Daniel abruptly kicked Harry in the shin. Harry grunted in pain and clutched his leg as Hermione came in front of him to check on him. But she obviously didn't notice Daniel grinning as she did so, and once she had bent over slightly to help Harry, Daniel slammed the front door so that it collided into Hermione's butt. Hermione crashed into Harry, and the two of them went tumbling down on top of each other.

They took a few moments to regain their bearings before Hermione pulled herself, along with Harry, up.

"What was _that _about?" Hermione asked in bewilderment.

"No idea," said Harry, who was just as stunned as Hermione was. He opened the door, and the two of them entered The Burrow before closing the door behind them.

Neither Daniel nor Ron was anywhere to be seen, but Harry and Hermione could hear sounds of enjoyment from the two in a nearby room.

Hermione glanced at her watch. "It's nearly time for lunch. Why don't we go and make something, stay out of their way for now?"

Harry, who was still rubbing his shin slightly, nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, all right."

About twenty minutes later, lunch was nearly ready. Hermione was putting the finishing touches on the food, which was sandwiches and the usual side dishes of the meal, and Harry was seated at the kitchen table, doing much of nothing.

"Do you think it's because of school?" he posed out of nowhere.

Hermione turned to him, curiosity gracing her features. "What?"

"Daniel. Do you think he doesn't like me because he thinks I tried to upstage Oliver when we were both on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team?"

Hermione remained silent as she deposited two plates with sandwiches down on the table. "That might be reasonable. I mean, it seems to me Daniel practically worships Oliver, so it makes sense he'd think you tried to steal his father's thunder."

Harry exchanged a look with Hermione. "Then I need to sit him down and tell him that I wasn't."

"Or," Hermione began thoughtfully, "you can convince him of that another way."

"How?"

"I was thinking you could take him outside later on your Firebolt and then purposely mess up on a few moves. That might give him enough satisfaction that Oliver's better."

Harry thought Hermione's words over for a moment and came to the conclusion that she had a point. "That sounds fine. I'll do that."

Hermione gave Harry a small smile before she called out, "Daniel! Ron! Lunch!"

Before either Daniel or Ron made it into the kitchen, Crookshanks came out of nowhere and strutted over to Hermione's legs, which he rubbed himself contentedly against. Hermione smiled and rubbed her cat behind the ears.

"I didn't know Crookshanks was here," said Harry.

"Yeah, I brought him over because he, along with some of my other stuff, was getting in the way of the people doing the redecorating at our house."

Just then, Ron and Daniel came in and took their seats at the kitchen table. Without a word spoken, they dug hungrily into their lunches. Harry and Hermione grinned at this before they started eating their own lunches.

Once everybody was done and the dishes were being cleared away, Harry took the opportunity to pose the question to Daniel. "Hey, Daniel," he said in as friendly a tone as he could manage, "would you like to go outside and practice on my Firebolt for a while?"

Daniel looked at Harry and beamed. "Yeah! Absolutely!"

"Great. Then, go out to the backyard and I'll meet you there after I get it."

Daniel didn't need to be told twice. He instantly jumped out of his chair and ran out the back door. Harry shared a furtive grin with Hermione before he headed upstairs to retrieve his broomstick.

Once he had and had also come out to The Burrow's backyard, Harry found Daniel waiting patiently with his backpack against his leg. Harry allowed Daniel a few moments to admire the broom before taking it back into his grasp.

"Okay," Harry told the young boy, "what I'm going to do is show you a few basic moves, and then you can get on and try them out yourself. Sound good?"

"Yep," Daniel replied excitedly.

So Harry mounted his Firebolt and took off and proceeded to perform a few basic moves in the air. All the while, Harry noticed Daniel looking up at him raptly. Soon enough, Harry finished and landed.

Daniel then mounted the broomstick himself, copying Harry's every move. As he did, Crookshanks wandered outside from the kitchen. It all happened so fast, Harry barely had any time to register it.

One moment, Daniel was calmly gliding through the air, the next he was swooping in low towards Crookshanks, a Beater bat brandished in his hand. It seemed like Crookshanks noticed this too, because the ginger cat sped back into the house just seconds before Daniel's bat would have made contact.

"Daniel…" said Harry in a stern voice once Daniel had come to a stop on the ground.

"Sorry," Daniel replied evasively. "Say, Harry, do you mind showing me those swerves again?"

"Sure, no problem."

Harry retook his broom and kicked off, heading a good distance into the air. He was in the middle of performing those swerves when something unexpected happened.

The Firebolt suddenly jerked from side to side, and Harry did his best to hold on tight. The broom continued to move in patterns that Harry wasn't performing voluntarily, including one where the broom was jerked at an upward angle without warning, propelling Harry a few inches into the air. Well, the broom had to go _somewhere_, and for Harry, that somewhere was a place particularly embarrassing and painful.

Clearly, Harry didn't notice Daniel on the ground as the young boy moved a lever around on a small device that had a large "W" on it; a Weasley's prank product that was designed to control any broom…much at the expense of the person on the broom. After a few more moments of jerking Harry around, Daniel brought Harry back down. Daniel quickly hid the device back in his backpack and raced back inside The Burrow.

Harry took no notice of this, as he was busy recovering from his little "injury". Once he had, he carefully got back up and walked back inside, wondering along the way what had happened.

He found Ron in the living room on the couch, hunched over what Harry assumed was paperwork from the office. Both Harry and Ron were Aurors.

Once Harry had plopped himself down into one of the armchairs, Ron glanced up at him and took in Harry's exhausted state.

"Flying lesson go okay?" asked Ron.

"It went…interesting," Harry replied while setting his broomstick against the side of the chair. He looked around. "Where's Hermione?"

"Upstairs with Daniel. She wanted to show him a book of hers or something."

But just then, Daniel came into the room, his facial expression communicating urgency. "Harry! Ron! You need to come help!"

Harry and Ron instantly got to their feet. "What is it?" inquired Ron.

"It's Hermione. Her book fell into this narrow space, and she went to get it out, and well…just come upstairs!"

He led Harry and Ron upstairs hurriedly and into Ginny's former bedroom. When they stepped inside, Harry and Ron instantly discovered what Daniel was talking about.

Up against the far right wall was a desk, and inside the area underneath it was Hermione. Well…at least half of her was visible; that half being her legs and butt. The open area underneath the desk looked to be pretty small, and Hermione was visibly wriggling in an attempt to free herself.

Harry and Ron walked over and stared down uncertainly. "Hermione?" Ron said.

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, her voice slightly muffled. "Help me! I'm stuck!"

Harry and Ron knelt down. "Well, I can tell you what the problem is, Hermione," said Ron as he stared at something on the right side of the desk. "This is a Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes item; a prank desk." He pointed out to Harry a gold "W" inscribed into the wood, just above the drawers. "There should be…ah ha." He pushed a mall button a few inches away from the "W", and the space expanded, freeing Hermione. Harry and Ron helped her up.

"All these years," breathed Hermione as she dusted herself off, "and your brother's antics still affect us."

"Can't help it," shrugged Ron. He regarded the desk. "You know what…I think I'll take this back to the shop. There's really no need for it to be here. Will you two be all right with Daniel by yourselves?"

"Of course," answered Harry. "Might I remind you that we have children of our own?"

Ron nodded. "Right. Well, I shouldn't be long." Ron took out his wand, shrunk the desk, put it in his pants pocket and Disapparated.

This left Harry and Hermione alone with Daniel.

"I need to use the bathroom," Daniel said suddenly. "Where is it?"

"Down the hall and to your left," said Harry. Daniel exited the room.

When Daniel was gone, Hermione turned to Harry, her eyebrows furrowed. "Harry, do you mind if I bounce something off of you?"

"Go ahead."

Hermione bit her lip. "I don't think me getting stuck under that desk was an accident."

Harry thought back to his and Hermione's first encounter with Daniel, and nodded. "You think Daniel tricked you under there."

"Obviously, he dropped my book under the desk on purpose, then after I slid it back out, the desk closed in around me. In fact," she looked around the room, "where _is _my book?"

The two of them spent a few moments in contemplative silence before looking at each other simultaneously and saying, "Daniel."

Harry and Hermione made their way down the hall towards the bathroom door, only to find it wide open with no sign of Daniel anywhere.

"It looks like little Daniel indeed doesn't think too highly of us," said Harry. "So what do we do?"

"Let's split up, that way, we can find him faster," reasoned Hermione. "Although, he's probably busy setting up more traps for us."

"Well, we have to do _something_. Let's go."

Harry walked over to the staircase that led downstairs and Hermione made to move towards the one leading to The Burrow's upper levels, when something suddenly caught her eye. It was her book, and it was currently suspended on a small protrusion from the wall over the bathtub/shower. Not particularly caring that Daniel probably wanted her to set foot inside, Hermione cautiously walked into the bathroom until she was a few inches from the tub. Hermione noticed that the tub was filled to the brim with water, but also that her book was within reaching distance. So, taking a deep breath, Hermione set one foot forward.

But that was all it took.

Hermione's foot slipped on the floor, which felt extra slick, and she went tumbling sideways into the tub, the water splashing over the edges as she did. Hermione came up for air and sat there in the tub, still in shock. As she did, she saw the bathroom door close seemingly by itself, and then heard the lock turn. But Hermione knew that it was Daniel.

She stumbled, soaked to the skin, out of the tub and ran over to the door, which was, as she suspected, locked.

"Daniel!" she shouted as she pounded on the door.

Hermione sighed and reached behind her to pull her wand out of her back pants pocket, but discovered that it wasn't there. With a flash of anger, Hermione realized Daniel must have stolen it when she was stuck under the desk.

In desperation, she crossed the room to the towel closet to find something to dry off with. Hermione turned the knob and opened the closet door, but immediately wished she hadn't.

Once the door had been pulled out, Hermione was assaulted with a shower of balloons she made out as shaped like Bludgers before they all exploded on her and released their contents: jam.

When the balloons had stopped pouring down on her, Hermione took in her appearance: extremely sloppy, wet and purplish.

She could only imagine what mischief lay in store for Harry.

Elsewhere in The Burrow, Harry was going from room to room, on the hunt for Daniel. He was currently on the bottom level, in the living room, and Daniel still hadn't turned up. Harry cautiously made his way around the room, but when he came to the chair which he had earlier propped his broomstick up against, he stopped. The reason for that was because his broomstick wasn't there anymore.

Refocusing on his surroundings, Harry stood in front of the chair, his back to it now. That was unfortunate, because just then, something from behind knocked Harry's legs out from under him, sending Harry tumbling back into the chair.

Harry wouldn't have minded this nearly as much if the cushion of the chair hadn't been holding something that quite audibly squished the moment his butt made contact with it. Sighing deeply, Harry stood up and peeled off what felt like a piece of paper from his rear end before walking over to a mirror. There, he finally got a good look at what was all over his butt.

Big, bold lettering in what appeared to be jelly, which read, "2nd Best." Obviously, it was one of Daniel's ways of saying that his Dad was better at Quidditch than Harry.

An outburst of giggling from Harry's right made Harry whirl around to see Daniel standing a few feet away, Harry's wand held prominently in his hand. Without saying a word, Harry gave chase to Daniel, who darted away just a split-second before Harry.

Harry chased Daniel to an open doorway, which Daniel ran confidently through. That confidence should have made Harry hesitate, but Harry was so consumed with anger at the moment, that rationality wasn't at the forefront of his mind. That was, it wasn't there until after Harry had stepped through the door's threshold.

Once that had happened, Harry felt his head twitch ever so slightly. He then caught sight of Daniel, who was standing against the far wall and smothering even more giggles with the palm of his hand. Curious as to what the little mischief maker was finding so funny, Harry glanced to his left, where a mirror was hanging on the wall. When Harry caught sight of himself, he gasped.

His hair was hot pink, even brighter than Tonks' hair had been.

"Daniel!" Harry exclaimed. "_What _did you do to my hair?"

Daniel stopped laughing, or at least, did the best he could. "Oh. You mean the Thing That Shall Not Be Named? Just a little, subtle charm I was taught. Nothing that can be sensed by the Ministry. It can also allow me to do this." Daniel snapped his fingers, and suddenly, Harry's clothes turned the same shade of hot pink. "And this." With another snap of Daniel's fingers, Harry found himself covered from head to toe in even more jam. "And let's not forget this." One final snap of Daniel's fingers simultaneously made the entirety of The Burrow, as far as Harry could tell, become hot pink and Harry's pants disappear, leaving him with a jam-covered upper half and just an underwear-clad lower half.

"Still better than my Dad _now?_" Daniel asked snidely as he tossed Harry back his wand before racing out of the room.

Initially, Harry wondered why Daniel would give him back his wand so easily, but after an attempt to Scourgify himself followed by one to bring his pants back didn't work, the answer became clear: whatever "charm" Daniel had employed, though subtle, was certainly powerful.

Just out of sheer hope, Harry tried to right the coloring of The Burrow, but as he expected, everything remained hot pink. So, gritting his teeth, Harry trudged after Daniel.

The hunt for Daniel eventually took Harry upstairs, where a banging on the other side of the bathroom door caused him to undo the lock on the doorknob and open it to reveal a very messy, and similarly jam-covered, Hermione standing there.

Harry and Hermione both gave each other a once-over before saying at the same time, "What happened to _you?_" Two seconds went by before each of them spoke simultaneously again, and this time, it was one word: "Daniel."

Hermione looked at Harry again, and asked the obvious question. "Harry…where are your pants?"

Harry scowled, wiped some jam out of his face, and shrugged his shoulders. "Search me."

Just then, Ron appeared in the hallway. It took all of three seconds for his face to go from neutral to confused. "Er…what _happened _to you two?"

"_Daniel_," Harry and Hermione both said at the same time for the second time.

Ron looked around at his old home. "And the…" He trailed off after seeing Hermione's jammed head nod. "So…where is he?"

Harry and Hermione shared a quick glance with each other. "Good question," said Hermione.

Ron checked his watch. "Bloody hell, it's 4:30. Oliver will be here soon. We need to find Daniel!"

But much to the trio's disappointment, there came a series of knocks from the front door.

"Just great!" spat Harry. "What are we going to do now?"

"Don't tell my Dad anything, and I'll fix everything I did."

The sound of Daniel's voice made all three of them turn to see him standing at the head of the stairs.

"_Excuse me?_" asked Hermione. "Why would we do that?"

"Look, I only did all of this because Dad said Harry was a better Quidditch player than him. I was angry, because I love my Dad very much and I figured I'd do all this to Harry to prove my Dad is still great."

"There were _other _ways you could've done that, rather than pranks," said Harry.

Daniel shrugged. "It was the only way I knew how." There were more knocks at the door. "Look, I lied before. I don't hate you, Harry. Or you, Hermione. I pranked you too because Dad always said you were loyal to Harry. But really, I think you're pretty cool based on all of my Dad's stories, Harry. This afternoon was just me being stubborn." He paused. "Can we forget this ever happened?"

Harry and Hermione shared a look that showed each of their sympathy for Daniel. "Under one condition," said Harry. "Just have Ron babysit you next time."

Daniel smiled and snapped his fingers. In that instant, everything went back to normal: The Burrow reverted back to its normal color, the jam vanished from Harry and Hermione, and Harry's pants returned to his legs.

The knocking persisted.

Harry smiled back at Daniel. "Let Ron take you down."


End file.
